Why I don't wear diamonds

There is something about watching a film that highlights the suffering of others. Something that pulls on my heart and makes me wonder - what in fuck am I doing with my life? Something almost visceral in the images as they flash forth and burn themselves into my gray matter and make me realize how hard it is to truly be involved in alleviating the world's suffering. Something that seems so tangible in the moment and yet so fleeting in the large scope.

Maybe that's why I've never done anything in my life except not wear diamonds.

There are many things about which I care, sometimes even enough to argue over, but not as many things about which I make a firm stance as diamonds. You can only avoid so many human tragedies in an American life - child labor that makes your clothes cheap, forced labor that brings the raw materials for your computer, destruction of the rain forests that gives you a caffeine buzz at your local cafe, and so many more. Regardless, I've decided not to be involved in the purchase of diamonds. Yes, I realize that there are plenty of diamonds that are not conflict stones, plenty that supply decent, hard-working Canadians mine and sell, but the point is that every woman or man who decides to purchase a diamond perpetuates the industry. Every. Single. One. When that girl shows off her diamond engagement ring to her girlfriends, she is showing them something they think they want. Because they want it, their boyfriends will buy them and present them in a romantic setting as if that shiny rock bodes well for their future together.

And somewhere between the earth and their sparkly future together, some of those stones financed child soldiers and mercenaries and death. And despite all my failings as an American consumer, I have chosen not to participate in that cycle. There is a part of me that is simply unwilling to put such a morbid symbol on my hand to signify a lifetime of partnership and love. And that's simply why, of all things, I don't wear diamonds.

Irrational Beliefs and Behavoirs

A friend posed the question to me, "what do you do when you cannot find middle ground between two conflicting viewpoints because one side is so irrational that there isn't a way to reconcile the two sides?" One of her examples is Iran (or Korea) vs the US...

The problem with irrational behaviors and beliefs are that they are fundamentally 'unopen' to rational response.

I mean, if you consider the case of Iran and denying the Holocaust. It is one of the most documented events in history and yet there are people like Ahmadinejad who virulently deny that it happened – crazy!?

Or if you take an example close to home – the batshit crazy Southern Baptists. You can’t reason with people like that...

You can 'rationally' state their motivations – i.e. spawn hatred against the Jews or that black people are inferior – but that doesn’t mean that you can provide a solution that suits both parties because solutions can’t serve irrational and rational goals at the same time. PLUS, to make matters more difficult, because you come from a rational viewpoint, your attempt to stand on middle ground and ‘understand’ their viewpoint is basically impossible.

Talk about your BIG questions in life. If I had the answer to this question, I would be the Nobel Peace Prize Winner and a whole lot richer...

China versus the United States

Here is my (likely to be unpopular) opinion on this country’s liberal media’s inexplicable favorable comparison of China versus the United States: it makes no sense. Period.

I read the left-wing bastion of the US press, the New York Times, on a daily basis. I enjoy the intelligent, if incredibly biased, liberal opinion writers and their columns. In my reading recently, I’ve noticed a bizarre trend. The liberal media has taken to berating the supposed failings of the United States via their comparisons to Beijing and the Olympics.

My first area of annoyance is infrastructure. Again, and again, I’ve been hearing the comparison of Beijing’s airport to LaGuardia in New York. I will agree that the latter is a complete mess and a terrible, terrible place to be stuck for any amount of time; however, I think it’s expected that Beijing’s airport would look amazing for the Olympic Games. I mean, come on, of COURSE it did. It was hosting the Olympics. Salt Lake City’s airport looked amazing after the Winter Games. I know. I spent time there one month after the 2002 Olympics.

Furthermore and far more importantly, these same critics, have talked about the transportation in Beijing and the technological advances in the city, and then they complain that our top metropolitans can’t compete with Beijing. Now – I just want to point out that these exact same people would GO INTO RIOTING if the US government displaced anyone and everyone (like they did in Beijing leading up the games) that it felt made the cities look dirty. These people would be in fits of rage if the US government left vast areas unfunded to pump money in LA, NYC, and DC. There would be chaos in the streets. Can you imagine what people would do if the gap between OUR rich and poor was anything like the CHASM between the rural peasants (yes, actual peasants) and urban dwellers in China? The left is already up in arms about our own poor, but can you picture the uproar if the US still had PEASANTS? And yet, when China acts in these ways, we ooh-and-ahh about the pretty city, and complain that what we have is awful…

To add to this, look at the quality of Chinese goods. People's pets have been dying from bad pet food. Children's toys are being recalled because of lead. Why are we so impressed by an infrastructure that has not supported safe manufacturing practices? The poor quality doesn't even touch on the issue of child labor and fair labor practices. Did the media forget that just months ago it was crucifying the Chinese for its poorly made products?

My second area of annoyance is society. We smiled and sighed as we watched the opening ceremonies. We were amazed to see how thousands and thousands of people worked together on lavish dances and performances. We all loved the little girl in the red dress. Then we found out that she was swapped out because she was more “cute” than the actual singer (a 7-year old, I should mention) who was deemed not “cute enough.” And then we winced when we found out that the fireworks were fake. Yes fake.

Then, I thought to myself, why are we so enthralled with a society where people come together for the Games, but also EXECUTE top government leaders old-school style: on your knees with a gun to the back of the head. Yep, in the blinding light of the Olympic Games, we forgot that this society executed the head of its version of the FDA within the last year. Why are liberals who oppose the death penalty not mentioning this?

Beyond that, why are the liberals who scream about racism in the United States not pointing out that the “multi-cultural” performance at the opening ceremonies was 90% Han Chinese, and did not include an ethnically diverse group of performers? How is it that fake fireworks, dancing, and singing overrode our supposed belief in human rights? It seems that since the Games, we have all but silenced the debate on Tibet. How is it that the liberal media who has taken up the well-deserved cry for the oppressed people of Zimbawe (as has the US government itself) so enamored with a government who said that it’s not the purview of the UN to intervene? The same people in the US who loath Americans for their prejudices are more than willing to embrace the Chinese whose prejudices and human rights suppression is not being checked by their government and/or a free and open media.

To make matters worse, everyone is so impressed by the rise of Chinese athleticism, and I say, “Well, of course they were good! Their government pays to train athletes from birth!” If the American government went from community preschool-to-preschool and took away all the promising divers/gymnasts/runners, etc to train them, we would not only have more medals than China, but there would be more golds. And there would be a deafening outcry. Can you IMAGINE the horror, shock, and revulsion that we would immediately hurl at the US government if they ever tried to separate children from their parents for the good of the nation’s ATHLETIC program?! To me, the sheer concept of Chinese state run sports is horrifying, and I think it’s a shame and practically a crime that these children have no say in their own future. At least our athletes have chosen their sports (crazy-sports parents aside) and were not state selected to be there. Look at poor Guo JingJing. She wanted to quit and the Chinese SHAMED her into competing again. I don’t think I saw her smile once. Then there was Lauren Wilkerson. She was really too old and too broken down to be there but she LOVES her sport and chose to compete. Do we want to be a nation where ‘The Giver’ has been realized…?

In short, I see that the US has many flaws, but I do not want to live in a world controlled by the Chinese. I value human life, individual choice, and capitalism far more than shiny cities whose bright lights dim out poverty-stricken, rural wastelands.

Listless Players

Soccer. The world's game. The most popular single sport on the face of the planet, and the world's most populous nation cannot stand up. I don't know what was more depressing in last night's game, China vs. Mexico, the listless Mexico team or the sadly pathetic Chinese one. The Mexican team ran circles around their Chinese opponents, but seemed really unenthusiastic. They scored, to the delight of their massive fan base in attendance, but overall were passing the ball back and forth. For the world's game, this representation was sadly disappointing. Perhaps it's a reflection on the state of the world right now: listless.